Apparatuses, methods and systems for a high density financial asset information display

ABSTRACT

The disclosure details the implementation of an APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY. The disclosure teaches a High Density Financial Asset Information Display which provides a high density, straightforward, unified, compact, dynamic and comprehensive display interface that presents users with a high volume of easy to understand financial asset information including the current buy and sell prices, the current price direction, the amount of time the asset pair is traded at each price, and the change in price over multiple time frames. The High Density Financial Asset Information Display is dynamically updated with the latest financial information and is formatted to convey relevant changes in the information of interest in a way that is easily understood by users.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/045,676 filed Oct. 3, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/233,175 filed Sep. 18, 2008, which claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/973,387 filed Sep.18, 2007. The contents of all applications are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety for all purposes.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This disclosure describes inventive aspects of at least 2 distinctinventions, including:

a high density financial asset information display (with a suggestedClass/Subclass of 705/36);

a graphical user interface (with a suggested Class/Subclass of 715/700);

The instant application details claims directed to a high densityfinancial asset information display (suggested Class/Subclass of705/36). However, in order to develop a reader's understanding of theinvention(s), the descriptions of the other invention(s) have beencompiled into a single disclosure to illustrate and clarify how aspectsof these inventions operate independently, interoperate as betweenindividual inventions, and/or cooperate collectively. The disclosuregoes on to further describe the interrelations and synergies as betweenany of the various inventions within the context of an overarchinginventive system; all of which is to further ensure compliance with 35U.S.C. § 112.

Furthermore, applicant hereby claims priority to under 35 USC § 119(e)for U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/973,387 filed Sep.18, 2007, entitled “APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITYFINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY”.

The entire contents of the aforementioned applications are hereinexpressly incorporated by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure is directed generally to apparatuses, methods,and systems for user interfaces, and more particularly, to apparatuses,methods and systems for a high density financial asset informationdisplay (hereinafter “HD-FAID”).

BACKGROUND

Existing interfaces for presenting financial information includes thestock ticker, first utilizing paper tape and now available in electronicformat. The ticker provides financial asset information. A ticker symbolidentifies the stock (e.g., the company name of the stock), and anindicated price per share of the stock. Other information, such aswhether the stock is trading higher or lower than the previous day'sclosing and the change amount (i.e., the difference in price from theprevious day's closing) may also be indicated. The above information maybe provided in financial sections/pages of newspapers and websites.

SUMMARY

Current displays and user interfaces do not provide a high density,straightforward, up-to-date, compact and comprehensive display forviewing and managing financial asset information. The conventionalmethods of supplying financial asset information is stifling potentialuser efficiencies and productivity gains.

The disclosure teaches APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGHDENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY (hereinafter “HD-FAID”),which provides a high density, straightforward, unified, compact,dynamic and comprehensive display interface that presents users with ahigh volume of easy to understand financial asset information. Thisinformation may include the current price direction, the change in priceover multiple time frames, the traded volume at price of the selectedfinancial asset, and/or the like. The HD-FAID is dynamically updatedwith the latest financial information and is formatted to conveyrelevant changes in the information of interest in a way that is easilyunderstood by users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying appendices and/or drawings illustrate variousnon-limiting, example, inventive aspects in accordance with the presentdisclosure:

FIG. 1 illustrates aspects of interaction between various entitiesassociated with an implementation of one HD-FAID;

FIGS. 2 and 3, collectively, are of a logic flow diagram illustrating anon-limiting example of an indicator to display selection tracking forthe HD-FAID;

FIGS. 4a-4b are logic flow diagrams illustrating non-limiting examplesof the computation of the HD-FAID's grid-view display properties;

FIG. 5 is of a screen image diagram illustrating information displayaspects of a grid-view display of an embodiment of APPARATUSES, METHODSAND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY;

FIG. 6 is of a screen image diagram further illustrating informationdisplay aspects of a grid-view display of an embodiment of APPARATUSES,METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATIONDISPLAY;

FIG. 7 is of a logic flow diagram illustrating a non-limiting example ofan interactive currency pair selection interface for APPARATUSES,METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATIONDISPLAY;

FIGS. 8a and 8b provide sequences of screen image diagrams illustratingaspects of one non-limiting example embodiment of an interactivecurrency pair selection interface for APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMSFOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY;

FIG. 9 is of a screen image diagram illustrating aspects of amulti-group list-view display of another embodiment of APPARATUSES,METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATIONDISPLAY;

FIGS. 10a-10d are of screen image diagrams illustrating aspects ofdifferent embodiments for key level selector displays of APPARATUSES,METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATIONDISPLAY;

FIGS. 11 and 12 provide screen image diagrams illustrating furtheraspects of one non-limiting embodiment of APPARATUSES, METHODS ANDSYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY;

FIGS. 13a-13e are of screen image diagrams illustrating aspects of userenvironment preferences of one embodiment of APPARATUSES, METHODS ANDSYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY;

FIGS. 14a-14d are of screen image diagrams illustrating aspects ofplacing orders for one embodiment of APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMSFOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY;

FIGS. 15a-15b are of a screen image diagrams illustrating furtheraspects of one non-limiting embodiment of APPARATUSES, METHODS ANDSYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSET INFORMATION DISPLAY; and

FIG. 16 is of a block diagram illustrating one non-limiting exampleembodiment of a high density financial asset information displaycontroller.

The leading number of each reference number within the drawingsindicates the figure in which that reference number is introduced and/ordetailed. As such, a detailed discussion of reference number 101 wouldbe found and/or introduced in FIG. 1. Reference number 201 is introducedin FIG. 2, etc.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

HD-FAID

For the purpose of illustrating various inventive aspects of theAPPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH DENSITY FINANCIAL ASSETINFORMATION DISPLAY (hereinafter “HD-FAID”), the following discussionincludes the HD-FAID implemented in the context of conveying foreignexchange information and data. However, it is to be understood that thisis a non-limiting implementation; there is significant flexibility,scalability, and adaptability associated with the HD-FAID. As such,there are a wide variety of possible implementations of the HD-FAID thatmay be configured to meet the needs of a variety of end users.

FIG. 1 illustrates various entities that interact with the systemaccording to one implementation of a HD-FAID 100. Generally, a user 140interacts with the HD-FAID 100 and HD-FAID database(s) 110 to create auser profile that may include his User_ID, workspace ID, account type,account preferences, tracked financial asset selections, i.e., foreignexchange currency pair selections, and display preferences. In oneembodiment, the HD-FAID database 110 may include several tables: ahistorical information table that may include fields such as, but notlimited to: historical prices, historical analyses, and/or the like; auser table that may support and/or track multiple entity accounts on anHD-FAID 100; a current information table that may include fields suchas, but not limited to: current price, current volume, currentdirection, up-to-date analyses, and/or the like; and a complementarycurrency pair table that may store information about all availablecurrency pairs.

Based on the user's financial asset selection, the HD-FAID retrieveshistorical and current information associated with the user's financialasset selection from the corresponding tables in the HD-FAID database110, and then uses the retrieved information, along with the user'sdisplay preferences, to provide a high density, straightforward,unified, compact, dynamic and comprehensive display interface thatpresents the user with a high volume of easy to understand financialasset information including the current buy and sell prices, the currentprice direction, the traded volume at price, and the change in priceover multiple time frames. The High Density Financial Asset InformationDisplay is dynamically updated with the latest financial information andis formatted to convey relevant changes in the information of interestin a way that is easily understood by users. The various entitiesconnected with the HD-FAID may be interconnected via communicationnetwork 150.

FIGS. 2 and 3, collectively, are of a logic flow diagram illustrating anon-limiting example of an indicator to display selection tracking 202for the HD-FAID. When a user 140 accesses the HD-FAID, it performs atest 204 to determine if a user profile exists in the user table of theHD-FAID database 110. If a user profile does exist, then the HD-FAIDcreates and maintains a high density financial asset information display236. (See FIG. 3 for additional details.) If, however, it is determined204 that a user profile does not exist in the user table of the HD-FAIDdatabase 110, then the HD-FAID creates a user profile 206. In oneembodiment, the user profile may include fields such as, but not limitedto: user_ID, account type, account preferences, workspace ID, trackedfinancial assets, and/or the like. Subsequently, and for each itemselection 208, i.e., for each currency pair selection, the HD-FAIDstores the selected item in the user profile 230. (Details on oneembodiment of the currency pair selection interface are provided inFIGS. 7 and 8.) The HD-FAID determines 212 if the selected item iscurrently tracked, i.e., the HD-FAID runs a profile check to determinewhether a user selected the item to track previously. If it is, then theitem gets stored in the user profile 230, and the HD-FAID creates andmaintains a high density financial asset information display 236.Otherwise, the HD-FAID checks to see if the quantum set for the selecteditem is updated 220, and if it is not, it obtains the necessary quantumsettings for the selected item 222, that may include the time quantumused to refresh the display. The data stream tracking for the selecteditem is then instantiated 224, the stream for the selected item isstored 226, the cache is updated with the selected item information 228,and the selection is stored in the user's profile 230. Finally, theHD-FAID creates and maintains a high density financial asset informationdisplay 236 as detailed in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 3, in order to create and maintain a high densityfinancial asset information display, the HD-FAID retrieves the selectiontracking from the user profile 310, along with the user's displaypreferences 312 that may include a grid-view display such as that ofFIG. 5, a multi-group list-view display such as that of FIG. 7, and/orthe like. For each tracked widget in the preferences, the HD-FAIDinstantiates tracking of the widget 316. Subsequently, and for eachwidget instance, the widget obtains the data store information for theitem, (i.e., currency pair), from the historical and current informationtables of the HD-FAID database 110 during 322. In one embodiment, atime-series database in a back-end server may get a financial data feedfrom a standard commercial source such as Reuters and then store thehistorical information of all available currency pairs. The obtainedhistorical information may include historical open and close prices,historical volume traded, historical analyses, and/or the like. In oneembodiment, upon receiving the data store information values, theHD-FAID may store such values in an array, stack, or heap and use themto compute display properties values used in the widget display 324. Inone non-limiting embodiment, the current price for the currency pair isdisplayed on one tile of the display, and the coloring of the title barof this tile is computed according to the price change of the currencypair on that day. If the current price of the currency pair is equal tothe open price of that day, the coloring of the title bar would be gray;it is higher than the open price, the coloring of the title bar would begreen; and if it is lower, the coloring would be red. Finally, theHD-FAID updates the widget display information 326. It should be notedthat the tools used to display the widget may be implemented in Flash,Javascript, Visual Basic, and/or the like. (See FIG. 4 for additionaldetail on how the HD-FAID may compute, in one embodiment, some of theproperties of a grid-view display such as that of FIG. 5.) This widgetdisplay update is done for every widget 328, and is periodicallyrepeated after the elapse of a time quantum 330. In one embodiment, thistime quantum may be in the order of seconds or less. In anotherembodiment, widgets do not poll, instead they are instantiated asdelegates; as delegates they are updated in real time as soon as acache, data stream, database, and/or any other data store using thewidget as a delegate target are updated.

FIGS. 4a-4b show a subset of the display properties that the HD-FAID maycompute for each widget using the retrieved data 324, when the user'sdisplay preference corresponds to a grid-view display such as that ofFIG. 5. As illustrated in FIG. 4a , the computed properties may includethe coloring of the title bar of one tile on the grid-view display 412according to the percentage price change of the displayed currency pairon that day. For example, the percentage price change of the displayedcurrency pair on a day is calculated by subtracting the open price onthat day from the current price and then dividing by the open price. Inone embodiment, the coloring of the title bar according to thepercentage price change of the currency pair would be as follows: greyif the percentage change is within −0.1% to +0.1%, light green if it iswithin +0.1% to +1.5%, light red if it is within −0.1% to −1.5%, darkgreen if it is higher than +1.5%, and dark red if it is lower than−1.5%. The HD-FAID may further compute the position and direction of avelocity element on a tile sparkline display 414, the properties of acircle enclosing the velocity element on the tile sparkline 416, andmarks to indicate recent price retracing on the tile sparkline 418. Inone embodiment, such as that shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, an arrow 511 isused to denote the velocity element. This arrow is placed in a positionon a sparkline tool 513 corresponding to the current price of thecurrency pair and is allowed to move within a region corresponding tothat day's price range, i.e., between the low and high price of thecurrency pair for the day. Further, if the current price is higher thanthe moving average of the price of the currency pair in the last minute,the arrow points in one direction, and otherwise it points to theopposite direction. In one embodiment, if there are sudden changes inthe price of the currency pair, the circle enclosing the arrow would bemade to pulse. In one embodiment, pulsation may be achieved byincreasing and decreasing the size of the circle and transparencyelement affecting a wake-like area around its perimeter. FIG. 4bprovides an alternative embodiment for the computation of direction ofthe velocity element (arrow) and the properties of the circle enclosingthe velocity element. In one implementation, the recent price retracingis indicated by displaying the green wake price range for the currencypair over the last 10 minutes (i.e., for prices that moved upwardstowards the current price) with a green color, and a red wake pricerange over the last 10 minutes (i.e., for prices that moved downwardstowards the current price). Finally, other computed display propertiesmay include the placement of a time histogram on a tile sparkline 420,to give some indication of the amount of time the currency pair istraded at each price. In one implementation, the daily price range isdivided into 30 equal price ranges and thus the time histogram willinclude 30 columns. Further, each histogram column would be scaled sothat the tallest column does not exceed the number of pixels allotted tothe time histogram section. FIGS. 5 and 6 are screen image diagramsproviding details of grid-view display implementations with at least theabove properties. It is to be understood that the rules used to computethe widget display properties for each selected item, i.e., currencypair, may differ in order to reflect price volatility for that item.

As discussed above, in a further HD-FAID embodiment, FIG. 4b provides alogic flow diagram for the computation of direction of the velocityelement (arrow) and the properties of the circle enclosing the velocityelement. In determining the direction of the arrow on the sparkline, theHD-FAID may calculate the median price over the last Deployment RelevantTime Span, T1, 450. Depending on the implementation and the volatilityof the financial instrument under question, the time span, T1, may beset to different values. For example, in one implementation the timespan, T1, may be set to 1 day, in another implementation T1 may be setto 1 hour, and in further implementations T1 may be set to 20, 10, or 5seconds. When calculating the median price, the HD-FAID may first sortall the prices by value over the last T1, and the median price would beset equal to the price in the middle of the sorted prices. Once themedian price of the currency pair over T1 is computed, the HD-FAID maycompute the exponential moving average (EMA) over the last SecondaryRelevant Time Span, T2, 455. Depending on the implementation and thedesired sensitivity to price movements, T2 may be set to differentvalues. For example, in one implementation T2 may be set to 1 week, inother implementations T2 may be set to 1 day, and in furtherimplementations T2 may be set to 20, 10, or 5 minutes. In determiningthe EMA, in one implementation the HD-FAID may also use another timeparameter, T3, that may take values of 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes, 60seconds, 30 seconds or 10 seconds. The HD-FAID may compute the EMAaccording to the following formula:

${EMA} = \frac{\sum_{{t = 0},\ldots\;,{T\; 2}}\left( {{{Price}(t)}*{\exp\left( {{- t}\text{/}T\; 3} \right)}} \right)}{\sum_{{t = 0},\ldots\;,{T\; 2}}\left( {\exp\left( {{- t}\text{/}T\; 3} \right)} \right)}$

The time granularity used in the summations of the above formula may bedetermined according to the set value for the time span T2. For example,if T2 is set to 5 minutes, the time granularity may be in the order ofseconds and if T2 is set to 5 hours, the time granularity may be in theorder of minutes. Once the EMA is computed, the HD-FAID may compute“Delta”, the percentage change of the median price as compared to theEMA, 460 as follows:

${Delta} = \frac{\left( {{median} - {EMA}} \right)}{median}$

In one embodiment, once Delta is computed, the HD-FAID may set twoparameters 462, threshold percentage, X, and spike percentage, Z, thatmay be used in determining the price direction of the arrow and theproperties of the circle enclosing the arrow. Using the computed valuefor Delta and the two parameters X and Z, the HD-FAID may then determineif Delta is greater than X 465. If it is, the price direction of thearrow on the sparkline is up 468. If Delta is not greater than X 465,the HD-FAID may determine if Delta is less than −X 475. If it is, theprice direction of the arrow is down 478, and if it is not there is nochange in the price direction of the arrow. In one implementation, whenthe price direction of the arrow is up a circle that may enclose thearrow may be colored green and when the price direction of the arrow isdown, the circle that may enclose the arrow may be colored red.Furthermore, when Delta is greater than X 465 and Delta is also greaterthan Z 470, the circle enclosing the arrow would be made to pulse toindicate an upward spike in price. On the other hand, when Delta is lessthan −X 475 and Delta is also less than −Z 470, the HD-FAID may indicatea downward spike in price by making the circle enclosing the arrow topulse. Depending on the implementation and the price volatility of theobserved financial instrument, the HD-FAID may set the threshold andspike percentage values X and Z at different levels. For example, in oneimplementation the HD-FAID may set X to 0.05% and Z to 1%. In otherimplementations, X may be set to 0.5%, 0.05%, 0.01%, 0.005%, 0.0025% or0.001% and Z may be set accordingly to 5%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.25% or 0.1%. Itis to be understood that depending on the actual HD-FAID implementationthe values for the threshold percentage X and the spike percentage Z maybe different than the provided values.

FIG. 5 is a screen image diagram illustrating information displayaspects of one non-limiting example embodiment of the HD-FAID. Asmentioned above, the HD-FAID provides a high density, straightforward,unified, compact, dynamic and comprehensive display interface thatpresents users with a high volume of easy to understand financial assetinformation. The display shown in FIG. 5 provides a grid of informationon currency spot prices 501 a-501 f that belong to the “Majors” category507 a. Non-displayed categories of currency pairs 507 b-507 d can bedisplayed by selecting the appropriate tab. Further, other categories ofcurrency pairs can be added or created by selecting the “Add Group” tab508 (see FIG. 13a for more details) and/or the currency pair selector ofFIG. 8. Users may also select the multi-group list-view display (seeFIG. 9 for additional detail) by selecting the appropriate button 503 a,instead of the grid-view display button 503 b. In one embodiment, thetitle bar (e.g., “USD MXN”) of each tile on the grid is coloredaccording to the percentage price change of the currency pair on thatday (or in an alternative embodiment, change on that hour or otherspecified time period). In a further embodiment, background color of thetile may indicate the change in price over a shorter period than theperiod indicated by the title bar. In this embodiment, light green(e.g., 501 b) indicates a moderate increase in price while dark green(e.g., 501 a) indicates a substantial increase in price. Similarly,light red (e.g., 501 e) indicates a moderate decrease in price whiledark red (e.g., 501 d) indicates a larger decrease in price. Dependingon the implementation, alternative coloring schemes may be employed. Inone embodiment, users may select their own color combinations so thatthe HD-FAID provides customized and more meaningful information to eachindividual user. Each tile also has a sparkline 505 that contains a highdensity of market information associated with the displayed currencypair (see FIG. 6 for additional details). For non-displayed tiles 510a-510 c, the coloring of the tiles may be set to alert the user as tothe “heat” or activity of the information represented by the tile (e.g.,dark green 510 a indicating a substantial increase in price on the day,dark red 510 b indicating a substantial decrease in price, and grey 510c indicating no significant change in price). The computation of thecoloring may be done in a similar way to that described for FIG. 4.Furthermore, the interface may allow users to execute a currency pairtrade by pressing the appropriate buy 520 or sell 521 buttons. In oneimplementation, once a currency pair trade order is placed, the HD-FAIDinitially processes the order and stores it using SecDB. In a furtherimplementation, users may be able to execute a currency trade bydouble-clicking on either the displayed buy or sell price. It should benoted that the buy and sell prices for each currency pair may bedifferent for different users. For example, for an experienced user thatperforms significant currency volume trades every month, there may be asmaller spread between the buy and sell prices for each availablecurrency pair.

FIG. 6 is a screen image diagram further illustrating aspects of theHD-FAID. In one embodiment, the tile display properties are computed asdetailed in the discussion of FIG. 4. As described in FIG. 5, the redcoloring of the title bar 601 indicates that the USD MXN is down on theday, i.e., the current price indicated by the arrow 607, (i.e., thesparkline velocity element), is lower than the opening price 602 a. Inone implementation, the opening price of the pair corresponds to theprice of the currency pair at 5 pm NY time of the previous day. Infurther implementations, users may be able to adjust the opening priceto what would work better for them, e.g. a user in Japan may set theopening price to be the price of the currency pair at 5 pm Tokyo time ofthe previous day. Moving to the tile sparkline 505, the displayindicates that even though the price of the currency pair is down, ithad once been up on the day 602, i.e., the absolute high price of thecurrency pair for the day is higher than the opening price 602 a. In603, the sparkline shows that the current price is also well off theabsolute low. 604 shows the pushing to retrace the downswing of the past10 minutes. In some embodiments, a marker may leave a trail to indicatepast locations, with the trail decaying over time. For example, if aprice or other indicator trails down, red marks may be left to the rightside of the marker, and if the price starts to come back green marks maybe left on the other side of the marker. In a further embodiment, themarks could fade and eventually disappear as time passed. In oneembodiment, the marks may be computed as described in FIG. 4 bycomparing the current price of the currency pair to the price range ofthe currency pair of the last 10 minutes, indicating the price range ofthe last 10 minutes lower than the current price with a red color, andthe price range of the last 10 minutes higher than the current pricewith a green color. The direction of the arrow on the sparkline display605 may be used to show the recent price direction of the currency pair.As indicated by the directionality of the arrow in FIG. 6, the recentprice direction is higher. In one embodiment, the recent price directionmay be computed as discussed in FIG. 4, by comparing the current priceof the currency pair to the moving average of the price over the lastminute. The bottom part of the sparkline 606 displays a time histogramof the price of the currency pair for the day, and shows that thecurrency pair has been traded most of the day in the current pricerange. If there is a break past the recent high, the market did notreally spend much time above this range and may try to close the gaphigher. The circle enclosing the arrow 607 may, in some embodiments,start pulsing if there is a sudden jump in the price of the currencypair. In one embodiment, this may occur if the magnitude of thepercentage change of the price in the last minute is above a thresholdof 1%. In a further embodiment the directional arrow may be tied tobuy/sell buttons on the display. The circle in FIG. 6 is not pulsing,and therefore indicates that the market is progressing up (i.e., in thedirection of the arrow), but does so at a non-violent pace. In oneembodiment, a user may place buy 610 and sell 612 widgets on thesparkline; such widgets would present the user with a dialogue box 614allowing them to place limit orders specifying a transaction. In oneembodiment, these points may be set by clicking at points on the sparkline and thereby prepopulating the dialogue box with approximate prices;in such an embodiment a pop-up menu may specify if the limit order is abuy or sell. In another embodiment, the user may right-click on thespark line specifying a buy/sell order before the dialogue box isdisplayed. If the spark line pushed to these points, the specified orderwould be placed automatically.

In one embodiment, FIG. 7 is of a logic flow diagram illustrating anon-limiting example of an interactive currency pair selection interfacefor the HD-FAID. When a user engages the currency pair selector widget720, the HD-FAID retrieves an initial foreign currency lineup from theHD-FAID database 722, and highlights, on the currency pair selectorinterface, all currencies initially available to the user 724. (See, forexample, the first screen image diagram of FIG. 8b ). If a user does notselect one of the highlighted items 726 and instead selects analternative widget 728, like the key level selector widget of FIG. 10,the HD-FAID closes the currency pair selector widget 730 and displaysthe alternative widget. If, however, a user selects one of thehighlighted currencies 726, a query is sent to the HD-FAID databaseusing the first currency user selection 732 as a parameter to select andretrieve the list of currencies complementary to this first currencyuser selection 734. In one embodiment, currency pairs may be stored in acurrency pair table in the HD-FAID database. Based on the retrieved listof complementary currencies, the HD-FAID highlights all availablecomplementary currencies 736 on the currency pair selection interfaceand makes the remaining currencies unselectable 738. Finally, if a userdecides to select a second currency from the available, highlighted ones740, the HD-FAID closes the currency pair selector widget 742 and passesthe currency pair information to the grid-view display widget forinstantiation and display 746 (as discussed in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6). If, onthe other hand, the user chooses not to select a second currency fromthe available ones 740, the HD-FAID closes the currency pair selectorwidget 730 before the currency pair selection is complete.

In one embodiment, FIG. 8a provides a sequence of screen image diagramsillustrating one non-limiting example embodiment of the currency pairselection interface for the HD-FAID. The first screen image diagram 800a shows that the currency pair selection interface can be invoked byclicking on the background of the tile and then clicking on the “Changecross . . . ” tab 800 c. As shown in the second screen image diagram 805a, the currency pair selection interface 805 c has four differentcategories of currencies (Majors, EMEA, Asia, and LATAM). In oneimplementation, the currencies in each row of the currency pairselection interface 805 c may be first ordered by geographical and thenby alphabetical parameters. For example, in the second row of thecurrency pair selection interface 805 c the currencies are first orderedby geographical parameters, i.e., currencies in Central and NorthAmerica, Oceania and Scandinavia, and then by alphabetical parameters.

In another embodiment, FIG. 8b provides a sequence of screen imagediagrams detailing the properties of the interactive currency pairselection interface and how it is used. As an example, the first screenimage diagram 810 a displays a tile 810 b for the GBP USD currency pair,along with the currency pair selection interface 810 c invoked to changethe selection for the currency pair of tile 810 b. All the currenciesdisplayed on the currency pair selection interface 810 c that areunavailable to a user are grayed out, i.e., all the currencies in theLATAM group. In one embodiment, the unavailable currencies might beunavailable for the day for all users or unavailable in general for aparticular user. In another embodiment, the HD-FAID may store allavailable currency pairs for a particular user in the form of an arrayor linked list in the user profile. The second screen image diagram 820a shows that the selection for the first currency of the newly selectedpair is AUD, which is highlighted. Based on this first currencyselection, the HD-FAID then looks up the array, linked list and/or otherappropriate data structure for all available currency pairs for the userin the user profile in order to determine the available currencies thatare complementary to AUD. It should be noted that multiple instances ofthe data structure may be maintained for various clients so that eachclient may have selections made available that are appropriate for thatclient; e.g., for novice clients the number of pairings may be reduced,while more experienced clients may have a greater number of options. SeeTables 1 and 2 for multiple and tiered examples of the data structurecurrency pairings.

TABLE 1 An example of data structure currency pairings   ARS/USD AUD/EURBRL/USD CAD/EUR CAD/USD CHF/EUR CHF/GBP CHF/USD CLP/USD COP/USD CZK/EURCZK/USD DKK/EUR DKK/GBP* DKK/USD GBP/EUR HKD/USD JPY/AUD JPY/CAD JPY/CHFJPY/DKK JPY/EUR JPY/GBP JPY/SEK JPY/USD MXN/USD NOK/EUR NOK/GBP* NOK/USDPEN/USD PLN/EUR PLN/USD SEK/EUR SEK/GBP SEK/NOK SEK/USD SGD/USD USD/AUDUSD/EUR USD/GBP USD/NZD ZAR/EUR ZAR/USD

In the case displayed in diagram 820 a, seven currencies (EUR, USD, JPY,GBP, CHF, CAD, and NZD) are available, and all other currencies aregrayed out to indicate that they are unavailable as complementaryselections to AUD. The currency pair selection interface 830 c of thethird screen image diagram 830 a shows that the user selects CAD amongthe available complementary currencies. Once the second currencyselection is made, the currency selection interface disappears andinformation about the newly selected currency pair, i.e., AUD CAD, getsdisplayed on the tile 840 b.

TABLE 2 Another example of data structure currency pairings.   ARS/USDAUD/EUR AUD/GBP AUD/GLD* BRL/USD CAD/AUD CAD/EUR CAD/GBP CAD/NZD CAD/USDCHF/AUD CHF/CAD CHF/EUR CHF/GBP CHF/NZD CHF/USD CLP/USD CNY/USD COP/USDCZK/AUD* CZK/CAD* CZK/CHF* CZK/EUR CZK/GBP* CZK/HKD* CZK/NZD* CZK/USDDKK/CHF DKK/EUR DKK/GBP DKK/USD EUR/GLD* GBP/EUR HKD/AUD* HKD/CADHKD/CHF* HKD/EUR HKD/GBP HKD/NOK* HKD/NZD* HKD/PLN* HKD/SEK* HKD/SGD*HKD/USD HUF/AUD* HUF/CHF HUF/EUR HUF/GBP* HUF/USD IDR/USD ILS/EURILS/USD INR/SGD INR/USD JPY/AUD JPY/CAD JPY/CHF JPY/CNY* JPY/CZK*JPY/DKK JPY/EUR JPY/GBP JPY/HKD JPY/MXN JPY/NOK JPY/NZD JPY/PHP JPY/PLNJPY/SEK JPY/SGD JPY/THB* JPY/TWD* JPY/USD JPY/ZAR KRW/EUR KRW/JPYKRW/USD MXN/CAD MXN/CHF MXN/EUR MXN/GBP MXN/USD MYR/USD NOK/AUD* NOK/CADNOK/CHF NOK/EUR NOK/GBP NOK/NZD NOK/USD NZD/AUD NZD/EUR NZD/GBP PEN/USDPHP/USD PLN/AUD* PLN/CAD* PLN/CHF* PLN/EUR PLN/GBP* PLN/NZD* PLN/USDRUB/USD SAR/USD* SEK/AUD SEK/CAD* SEK/CHF SEK/EUR SEK/GBP SEK/NOKSEK/NZD SEK/SGD SEK/USD SGD/AUD* SGD/CAD* SGD/CHF* SGD/EUR SGD/GBP*SGD/NZD* SGD/USD SKK/EUR SKK/USD* THB/EUR* THB/GBP* THB/USD* TRL/USD*TRY/EUR TRY/GBP TRY/USD TWD/USD USD/AUD USD/EUR USD/GBP USD/GLD* USD/NZDUSD/SIL* ZAR/AUD* ZAR/CAD ZAR/CHF* ZAR/EUR ZAR/GBP ZAR/HKD* ZAR/NZD*ZAR/USD

FIG. 9 is a screen image diagram illustrating aspects of a multi-grouplist-view display for an embodiment of the HD-FAID. In the diagram, fourcategories of currency pairs 910 a-910 d are displayed, and in eachcategory the currency pair (cross) 911, bid price 912, ask price 913 arelisted, along with the sparkline 914. In another embodiment, a dot maybe added to the sparkline to indicate opening price for the currencypair for the day. In a further embodiment, each currency pair label mayalso be colored according to the percentage change on the price of thecurrency pair on that day in a similar way to the coloring of the titlebar of each tile in FIG. 6. Users may select the grid view display ofFIG. 5 by pressing button 903 b, instead of the multi-group list-viewdisplay button 903 a. In a further embodiment, some of the selectedcurrency pairs may be viewed using the grid-view display, and theremaining ones using the list-view display.

FIGS. 10a and 10b are of screen image diagrams illustrating aspects ofdifferent embodiments for key level selector displays of the HD-FAID.Key level selector displays provide information about the price movementof the currency pair over different time periods and may be employed byusers in deciding at which price to place a buy or sell order for acurrency pair. As will be seen later, the HD-FAID provides multiple waysof instantiating a key level selector display for a particular currencypair. In FIG. 10a , the large box 1001 indicates the price range plusthe next key price level, like a reticle zooming in on its subject. Theblue brackets 1002 zoom to the current day's range. The nearest levelsabove and below the current price are in the smaller box 1003. Dependingon the implementation, fonts may be enlarged and/or bolded to impart asense of relevance, urgency, importance and take away from thedistraction of the rest of the table. Similarly, different types oflevels may be color coded as another visual cue. A cross-hair and arrow1004 may be utilized to show the current price with the direction of thearrow indicating the direction of a recent move, i.e., if the currentprice of the currency pair is higher than the moving average of theprice over the last minute, the arrow points upwards; otherwise, itpoints downwards. Besides the high and low level prices for differenttime periods, the display may also contain different day-moving-averages(dma), such as 55-dma, 100-dma, and 200-dma, along with differentforecast levels. The different price levels are displayed in descendingorder. As described above, in one implementation a time-series databasein a back-end server may have a financial data feed from a standardcommercial source such as Reuters and then store the historicalinformation of all available currency pairs for a particular user.

FIG. 10b is of a screen image diagram of a further embodiment of a keylevel selector display that contains very similar information to FIG.10a , but places emphasis on important price levels in a different way.FIG. 10b also contains the current buy and sell prices, a sparkline suchas that of FIGS. 5, 6 and 9, and uses a title bar coloring to indicatepercentage change of price on the day such as the one used in thegrid-view display of FIG. 5. FIG. 10c provides aspects of animplementation example of how a key level selector display such as thatof FIG. 10b may be instantiated in a grid view display interface 1030.For example, if a user is interested in looking at the key price levelsof the USD/JPY currency pair displayed in tile 1035, the user may beable to press a key icon 1040 in order to instantiate a key levelselector display 1045. In one implementation, the HD-FAID may onlyupdate in real time the price levels indicated by 1050 in order tominimize the information exchange with the HD-FAID database. In anotherimplementation, a user may be able to enter a currency pair trade bydouble clicking on the current mid level price 1055.

In a further implementation, such as that displayed in FIG. 10d , a usermight decide to enter a USD/JPY currency pair trade by employing theorder interface tile 1060. If a user needs more information about thekey price levels for the USD/JPY pair, the user may be able to press akey icon 1065 to instantiate the key level selector display 1070. Forexample, the key level selector display 1070 shows that the high pricefor the USD/JPY pair for yesterday is 106.43, and the user may decide toenter a sell trade for 1,000,000 at 106.34.

FIGS. 11 and 12 provide screen image diagrams illustrating furtheraspects of one non-limiting embodiment of the HD-FAID. The screen imagediagram 1120 a comprises of a grid view display as that of FIG. 5, aLaunch Bar display 1122, an OrderBook display 1124, an FX blotterdisplay 1126, and an FX Blog display 1128. As detailed in screen imagediagram 1130 a, the Launch Bar 1122 may be used to add a new workspace,rename or delete an existing workspace, and/or minimize all openworkspaces. The OrderBook display 1124 and FX Blotter display 1126 maybe used to display details for all the user entered orders and executedtrades respectively. In one embodiment, another feature of the LaunchBar display 1122 are the miniaturized workspaces 1129, that allow a userof the HD-FAID to easily switch between the different available userworkspaces by clicking on the corresponding miniaturized workspace. TheFX Blog display 1128 is highly customizable and provides a list offinancial headlines from all the major news sources. In one embodimentas displayed in FIG. 12, when a user clicks on a headline 1236, (“FedCuts Key Interest Rate by a Half Point; Markets Soar”), a browser window1238 opens up displaying the full story in its original context.

FIGS. 13a-13e are of screen image diagrams illustrating aspects of userenvironment preferences of one embodiment of the HD-FAID. FIG. 13a showsthat the Settings display window 1320 has five tabs: a Currency Groupstab 1321, a Launch Bar tab 1322, a Notification & Alerts tab 1323, anExecution tab 1324, and an OrderBook tab 1325. When the Currency Groupstab 1321 is selected, a user may add a new group by clicking on thegreen “+” icon 1330. Further, a user may remove a group or currency pairby clicking on the “x” icon beside the row where the item resides, andsave the changes made by clicking on button 1334.

In one embodiment, FIG. 13b displays the settings associated with theselection of the Launch Bar tab 1322. A user may select the Launch Bar1122 to always be on top by checking the appropriate box 1341. Further,a user may select 1347 the contents to view on his FX Blog 1128 bychecking the appropriate boxes of the news sources. A user may alsoselect the types of swaps 1344 and options 1345 that will be availableon his HD-FAID for his selection(s) 1343 of currency groups.

In one embodiment, FIG. 13c displays the settings associated with theselection of the Notification & Alerts tab 1323 of one embodiment of theHD-FAID. A user may provide his office phone number, mobile phonenumber, and/or other home alternate phone number in order to receivetrade and order notifications. Automated emails 1342 may also be used toinform a user of his executed trades and order recap. Finally, a usermay use 1343 to configure whether the system alerts received for histrade and order notifications would be sticky or fade out after aspecified time. In another embodiment, FIG. 13d displays the settingsassociated with the selection of the Execution tab 1323, and FIG. 13edisplays the setting associated with the selection of the OrderBook tab.Some of the selection options of FIG. 13c described in this paragraphare also available in the displays of FIGS. 13d and 13e . Additionalselections may include the order defaults 1362 that can be used tospecify default take profit and stop loss order types, such as “At MyLevel (no slippage)” and “Market if Touched”.

FIGS. 14a-14d are a sequence of screen image diagrams illustratingaspects of placing currency orders for one embodiment of the HD-FAID.FIG. 14a provides an example of a user interface that may be employed inorder to enter an order for a EUR/USD currency pair. A user may look atthe information provided in the key level selector display 1415 beforedeciding what order to place on the EUR/USD pair by using the “Orderdetails” display 1410. For example, a user may decide to enter a sellorder for 50,000 EUR vs. USD at a price of 1.6221. If the amount doesnot exceed the personal limit of the user, the HD-FAID will accept thesell order and display a notification 1420 on the “Order Details display1410, as shown in FIG. 14b . FIG. 14c is of a further embodiment of theHD-FAID that may display the user entered trades for each currency pairunder the corresponding sell or buy buttons of the currency pair tile.For example, as displayed in FIG. 14d , a user may click on the number“21” under the sell button of the EUR/USD tile 1430 in order to see thedetails of the entered trade 1435, e.g., sell 50,000 EUR vs. USD at1.6221. In one implementation, all the HD-FAID currency pair tradenotifications may be viewed in a display window such as that of FIG. 14dthat may be placed in the corner of the HD-FAID display. The tradenotification window may provide information about entered and canceledtrades, executed trades, and trade notifications about unacceptableorders. In one implementation, the currency pair trade notificationdisplay may pop up on the HD-FAID every time a new event occurs, and inanother implementation the notification display may be displayedcontinuously in a corner of the HD-FAID display and new events would bedisplayed with a flashing color to alert the user.

FIGS. 15a-15b are of screen image diagrams illustrating further aspectsof one non-limiting embodiment of the HD-FAID. FIG. 15a shows a“Spot/Swap Ticket” window 1510 that may allow a user to select spot orforward rates 1515 for a currency pair by clicking on the quote button1520. Once a spot/forward selection is made, the corresponding buy 1530and sell 1525 prices for the selections will be displayed. For example,as shown in frame 1550 of FIG. 15b , if a user selects a forward date1515 of Jun. 10, 2008 the HD-FAID would retrieve and display the forwardbuy 1530 and sell 1525 rates for EUR vs. USD. In our example, theforward buy rate for EUR vs. USD would be 1.5770 and the forward sellrate for EUR vs. USD would be 1.5768. If a user decides to execute aspot or forward trade, an indicator 1555 may be used by the HD-FAID toprovide information about the remaining time until order execution, e.g.indicator showing 5 seconds remaining.

Frame 570 of FIG. 15b provides a further embodiment of the HD-FAID thatmay be employed by a user to enter forward trades in the grid viewdisplay environment. For example, a user may decide to enter a forwardtrade for the GBP/USD currency pair displayed in tile 1575. The user mayenter the date of interest for the forward trade for the GBP/USD pair byusing calendar pop-up display 1580 that may be invoked by clickingcalendar button 1585. In one implementation, the relative differencebetween current and forward rates may be displayed 1587 and 1588 underthe current buy and sell prices for the currency pair.

HD-FAID Controller

FIG. 16 of the present disclosure illustrates inventive aspects of aHD-FAID controller 1601 in a block diagram. In this embodiment, theHD-FAID controller 1601 may serve to aggregate, process, store, search,serve, identify, instruct, generate, match, and/or facilitateinteractions with a computer through various display and interfacetechnologies, and/or other related data.

Typically, users, which may be people and/or other systems, engageinformation technology systems (e.g., commonly computers) to facilitateinformation processing. In turn, computers employ processors to processinformation; such processors are often referred to as central processingunits (CPU). A common form of processor is referred to as amicroprocessor. CPUs use communicative signals to enable variousoperations. Such communicative signals may be stored and/or transmittedin batches as program and/or data components facilitate desiredoperations. These stored instruction code signals may engage the CPUcircuit components to perform desired operations. A common type ofprogram is a computer operating system, which, commonly, is executed byCPU on a computer; the operating system enables and facilitates users toaccess and operate computer information technology and resources. Commonresources employed in information technology systems include: input andoutput mechanisms through which data may pass into and out of acomputer; memory storage into which data may be saved; and processors bywhich information may be processed. Often information technology systemsare used to collect data for later retrieval, analysis, andmanipulation, commonly, which is facilitated through a database program.Information technology systems provide interfaces that allow users toaccess and operate various system components.

In one embodiment, the HD-FAID controller 1601 may be connected toand/or communicate with entities such as, but not limited to: one ormore users from user input devices 1611; peripheral devices 1612; acryptographic processor device 1628; and/or a communications network1613.

Networks are commonly thought to comprise the interconnection andinteroperation of clients, servers, and intermediary nodes in a graphtopology. It should be noted that the term “server” as used throughoutthis disclosure refers generally to a computer, other device, program,or combination thereof that processes and responds to the requests ofremote users across a communications network. Servers serve theirinformation to requesting “clients.” The term “client” as used hereinrefers generally to a computer, other device, program, or combinationthereof that is capable of processing and making requests and obtainingand processing any responses from servers across a communicationsnetwork. A computer, other device, program, or combination thereof thatfacilitates, processes information and requests, and/or furthers thepassage of information from a source user to a destination user iscommonly referred to as a “node.” Networks are generally thought tofacilitate the transfer of information from source points todestinations. A node specifically tasked with furthering the passage ofinformation from a source to a destination is commonly called a“router.” There are many forms of networks such as Local Area Networks(LANs), Pico Networks, Wide Area Networks (WANs), Wireless Networks(WLANs), etc. For example, the Internet is generally accepted as beingan interconnection of a multitude of networks whereby remote clients andservers may access and interoperate with one another.

The HD-FAID controller 1601 may be based on common computer systems thatmay comprise, but are not limited to, components such as: a computersystemization 1602 connected to memory 1629.

Computer Systemization

A computer systemization 1602 may comprise a clock 1630, centralprocessing unit (CPU) 1603, a read only memory (ROM) 1606, a randomaccess memory (RAM) 1605, and/or an interface bus 1607, and mostfrequently, although not necessarily, are all interconnected and/orcommunicating through a system bus 1604. Optionally, the computersystemization may be connected to an internal power source 1686.Optionally, a cryptographic processor 1626 may be connected to thesystem bus. The system clock typically has a crystal oscillator andprovides a base signal. The clock is typically coupled to the system busand various clock multipliers that will increase or decrease the baseoperating frequency for other components interconnected in the computersystemization. The clock and various components in a computersystemization drive signals embodying information throughout the system.Such transmission and reception of signals embodying informationthroughout a computer systemization may be commonly referred to ascommunications. These communicative signals may further be transmitted,received, and the cause of return and/or reply signal communicationsbeyond the instant computer systemization to: communications networks,input devices, other computer systemizations, peripheral devices, and/orthe like. Of course, any of the above components may be connecteddirectly to one another, connected to the CPU, and/or organized innumerous variations employed as exemplified by various computer systems.

The CPU comprises at least one high-speed data processor adequate toexecute program components for executing user and/or system-generatedrequests. The CPU may be a microprocessor such as AMD's Athlon, Duronand/or Opteron; IBM and/or Motorola's PowerPC; IBM's and Sony's Cellprocessor; Intel's Celeron, Itanium, Pentium, Xeon, and/or XScale;and/or the like processor(s). The CPU interacts with memory throughsignal passing through conductive conduits to execute stored signalprogram code according to conventional data processing techniques. Suchsignal passing facilitates communication within the HD-FAID controllerand beyond through various interfaces. Should processing requirementsdictate a greater amount speed, parallel, mainframe and/orsuper-computer architectures may similarly be employed. Alternatively,should deployment requirements dictate greater portability, smallerPersonal Digital Assistants (PDAs) may be employed.

Power Source

The power source 1686 may be of any standard form for powering smallelectronic circuit board devices such as the following power cells:alkaline, lithium hydride, lithium ion, lithium polymer, nickel cadmium,solar cells, and/or the like. Other types of AC or DC power sources maybe used as well. In the case of solar cells, in one embodiment, the caseprovides an aperture through which the solar cell may capture photonicenergy. The power cell 1686 is connected to at least one of theinterconnected subsequent components of the HD-FAID thereby providing anelectric current to all subsequent components. In one example, the powersource 1686 is connected to the system bus component 1604. In analternative embodiment, an outside power source 1686 is provided througha connection across the I/O 1608 interface. For example, a USB and/orIEEE 1394 connection carries both data and power across the connectionand is therefore a suitable source of power.

Interface Adapters

Interface bus(ses) 1607 may accept, connect, and/or communicate to anumber of interface adapters, conventionally although not necessarily inthe form of adapter cards, such as but not limited to: input outputinterfaces (I/O) 1608, storage interfaces 1609, network interfaces 1610,and/or the like. Optionally, cryptographic processor interfaces 1627similarly may be connected to the interface bus. The interface busprovides for the communications of interface adapters with one anotheras well as with other components of the computer systemization.Interface adapters are adapted for a compatible interface bus. Interfaceadapters conventionally connect to the interface bus via a slotarchitecture. Conventional slot architectures may be employed, such as,but not limited to: Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), Card Bus,(Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA), Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral Component Interconnect (Extended)(PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer Memory Card InternationalAssociation (PCMCIA), and/or the like.

Storage interfaces 1609 may accept, communicate, and/or connect to anumber of storage devices such as, but not limited to: storage devices1614, removable disc devices, and/or the like. Storage interfaces mayemploy connection protocols such as, but not limited to: (Ultra)(Serial) Advanced Technology Attachment (Packet Interface) ((Ultra)(Serial) ATA(PI)), (Enhanced) Integrated Drive Electronics ((E)IDE),Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394, fiberchannel, Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), Universal Serial Bus(USB), and/or the like.

Network interfaces 1610 may accept, communicate, and/or connect to acommunications network 1613. Through a communications network 713, theHD-FAID controller is accessible through remote clients 1633 b (e.g.,computers with web browsers) by users 1633 a. Network interfaces mayemploy connection protocols such as, but not limited to: direct connect,Ethernet (thick, thin, twisted pair 10/100/1000 Base T, and/or thelike), Token Ring, wireless connection such as IEEE 802.11a-x, and/orthe like. A communications network may be any one and/or the combinationof the following: a direct interconnection; the Internet; a Local AreaNetwork (LAN); a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN); an Operating Missionsas Nodes on the Internet (OMNI); a secured custom connection; a WideArea Network (WAN); a wireless network (e.g., employing protocols suchas, but not limited to a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), I-mode,and/or the like); and/or the like. A network interface may be regardedas a specialized form of an input output interface. Further, multiplenetwork interfaces 1610 may be used to engage with variouscommunications network types 1613. For example, multiple networkinterfaces may be employed to allow for the communication overbroadcast, multicast, and/or unicast networks.

Input Output interfaces (I/O) 1608 may accept, communicate, and/orconnect to user input devices 1611, peripheral devices 1612,cryptographic processor devices 1628, and/or the like. I/O may employconnection protocols such as, but not limited to: Apple Desktop Bus(ADB); Apple Desktop Connector (ADC); audio: analog, digital, monaural,RCA, stereo, and/or the like; IEEE 1394a-b; infrared; joystick;keyboard; midi; optical; PC AT; PS/2; parallel; radio; serial; USB;video interface: BNC, coaxial, composite, digital, Digital VisualInterface (DVI), RCA, RF antennae, S-Video, VGA, and/or the like;wireless; and/or the like. A common output device is a television set,which accepts signals from a video interface. Also, a video display,which typically comprises a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD) based monitor with an interface (e.g., DVI circuitry andcable) that accepts signals from a video interface, may be used. Thevideo interface composites information generated by a computersystemization and generates video signals based on the compositedinformation in a video memory frame. Typically, the video interfaceprovides the composited video information through a video connectioninterface that accepts a video display interface (e.g., an RCA compositevideo connector accepting an RCA composite video cable; a DVI connectoraccepting a DVI display cable, etc.).

User input devices 1611 may be card readers, dongles, finger printreaders, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards, mouse (mice),remote controls, retina readers, trackballs, trackpads, and/or the like.

Peripheral devices 1612 may be connected and/or communicate to I/Oand/or other facilities of the like such as network interfaces, storageinterfaces, and/or the like. Peripheral devices may be audio devices,cameras, dongles (e.g., for copy protection, ensuring securetransactions with a digital signature, and/or the like), externalprocessors (for added functionality), goggles, microphones, monitors,network interfaces, printers, scanners, storage devices, video devices,video sources, visors, and/or the like.

It should be noted that although user input devices and peripheraldevices may be employed, the HD-FAID controller may be embodied as anembedded, dedicated, and/or monitor-less (i.e., headless) device,wherein access would be provided over a network interface connection.

Cryptographic units such as, but not limited to, microcontrollers,processors 1626, interfaces 1627, and/or devices 1628 may be attached,and/or communicate with the HD-FAID controller. A MC68HC16microcontroller, commonly manufactured by Motorola Inc., may be used forand/or within cryptographic units. Equivalent microcontrollers and/orprocessors may also be used. The MC68HC16 microcontroller utilizes a16-bit multiply-and-accumulate instruction in the 16 MHz configurationand requires less than one second to perform a 512-bit RSA private keyoperation. Cryptographic units support the authentication ofcommunications from interacting agents, as well as allowing foranonymous transactions. Cryptographic units may also be configured aspart of CPU. Other commercially available specialized cryptographicprocessors include VLSI Technology's 33 MHz 6868 or SemaphoreCommunications' 40 MHz Roadrunner 184.

Memory

Generally, any mechanization and/or embodiment allowing a processor toaffect the storage and/or retrieval of information is regarded as memory1629. However, memory is a fungible technology and resource, thus, anynumber of memory embodiments may be employed in lieu of or in concertwith one another. It is to be understood that the HD-FAID controllerand/or a computer systemization may employ various forms of memory 1629.For example, a computer systemization may be configured wherein thefunctionality of on-chip CPU memory (e.g., registers), RAM, ROM, and anyother storage devices are provided by a paper punch tape or paper punchcard mechanism; of course such an embodiment would result in anextremely slow rate of operation. In a typical configuration, memory1629 will include ROM 1606, RAM 1605, and a storage device 1614. Astorage device 1614 may be any conventional computer system storage.Storage devices may include a drum; a (fixed and/or removable) magneticdisk drive; a magneto-optical drive; an optical drive (i.e., CDROM/RAM/Recordable (R), ReWritable (RW), DVD R/RW, etc.); an array ofdevices (e.g., Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)); and/orother devices of the like. Thus, a computer systemization generallyrequires and makes use of memory.

Component Collection

The memory 1629 may contain a collection of program and/or databasecomponents and/or data such as, but not limited to: operating systemcomponent(s) 1615 (operating system); information server component(s)1616 (information server); user interface component(s) 1617 (userinterface); Web browser component(s) 1618 (Web browser); database(s)1619; mail server component(s) 1621; mail client component(s) 1622;cryptographic server component(s) 1620 (cryptographic server); theHD-FAID component(s) 1635; and/or the like (i.e., collectively acomponent collection). These components may be stored and accessed fromthe storage devices and/or from storage devices accessible through aninterface bus. Although non-conventional program components such asthose in the component collection, typically, are stored in a localstorage device 1614, they may also be loaded and/or stored in memorysuch as: peripheral devices, RAM, remote storage facilities through acommunications network, ROM, various forms of memory, and/or the like.

Operating System

The operating system component 1615 is an executable program componentfacilitating the operation of the HD-FAID controller. Typically, theoperating system facilitates access of I/O, network interfaces,peripheral devices, storage devices, and/or the like. The operatingsystem may be a highly fault tolerant, scalable, and secure system suchas: Apple Macintosh OS X (Server); AT&T Plan 9; Be OS; Unix andUnix-like system distributions (such as AT&T's UNIX; Berkley SoftwareDistribution (BSD) variations such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and/orthe like; Linux distributions such as Red Hat, Ubuntu, and/or the like);and/or the like operating systems. However, more limited and/or lesssecure operating systems also may be employed such as Apple MacintoshOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft DOS, Microsoft Windows2000/2003/3.1/95/98/CE/Millenium/NTNista/XP (Server), Palm OS, and/orthe like. An operating system may communicate to and/or with othercomponents in a component collection, including itself, and/or the like.Most frequently, the operating system communicates with other programcomponents, user interfaces, and/or the like. For example, the operatingsystem may contain, communicate, generate, obtain, and/or provideprogram component, system, user, and/or data communications, requests,and/or responses. The operating system, once executed by the CPU, mayenable the interaction with communications networks, data, I/O,peripheral devices, program components, memory, user input devices,and/or the like. The operating system may provide communicationsprotocols that allow the HD-FAID controller to communicate with otherentities through a communications network 1613. Various communicationprotocols may be used by the HD-FAID controller as a subcarriertransport mechanism for interaction, such as, but not limited to:multicast, TCP/IP, UDP, unicast, and/or the like.

Information Server

An information server component 1616 is a stored program component thatis executed by a CPU. The information server may be a conventionalInternet information server such as, but not limited to Apache SoftwareFoundation's Apache, Microsoft's Internet Information Server, and/or thelike. The information server may allow for the execution of programcomponents through facilities such as Active Server Page (ASP), ActiveX,(ANSI) (Objective-) C (++), C# and/or .NET, Common Gateway Interface(CGI) scripts, Java, JavaScript, Practical Extraction Report Language(PERL), Hypertext Pre-Processor (PHP), pipes, Python, WebObjects, and/orthe like. The information server may support secure communicationsprotocols such as, but not limited to, File Transfer Protocol (FTP);HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP); Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTPS), Secure Socket Layer (SSL), messaging protocols (e.g., AmericaOnline (AOL) Instant Messenger (AIM), Application Exchange (APEX), ICQ,Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Microsoft Network (MSN) Messenger Service,Presence and Instant Messaging Protocol (PRIM), Internet EngineeringTask Force's (IETF's) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), SIP for InstantMessaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), open XML-basedExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) (i.e., Jabber or OpenMobile Alliance's (OMA's) Instant Messaging and Presence Service(IMPS)), Yahoo! Instant Messenger Service, and/or the like. Theinformation server provides results in the form of Web pages to Webbrowsers, and allows for the manipulated generation of the Web pagesthrough interaction with other program components. After a Domain NameSystem (DNS) resolution portion of an HTTP request is resolved to aparticular information server, the information server resolves requestsfor information at specified locations on the HD-FAID controller basedon the remainder of the HTTP request. For example, a request such ashttp://123.124.125.126/myInformation.html might have the IP portion ofthe request “123.124.125.126” resolved by a DNS server to an informationserver at that IP address; that information server might in turn furtherparse the http request for the “/myInformation.html” portion of therequest and resolve it to a location in memory containing theinformation “myInformation.html.” Additionally, other informationserving protocols may be employed across various ports, e.g., FTPcommunications across port 21, and/or the like. An information servermay communicate to and/or with other components in a componentcollection, including itself, and/or facilities of the like. Mostfrequently, the information server communicates with the HD-FAIDdatabase 1619, operating systems, other program components, userinterfaces, Web browsers, and/or the like.

Access to the HD-FAID database may be achieved through a number ofdatabase bridge mechanisms such as through scripting languages asenumerated below (e.g., CGI) and through inter-application communicationchannels as enumerated below (e.g., CORBA, WebObjects, etc.). Any datarequests through a Web browser are parsed through the bridge mechanisminto appropriate grammars as required by the HD-FAID. In one embodiment,the information server would provide a Web form accessible by a Webbrowser. Entries made into supplied fields in the Web form are tagged ashaving been entered into the particular fields, and parsed as such. Theentered terms are then passed along with the field tags, which act toinstruct the parser to generate queries directed to appropriate tablesand/or fields. In one embodiment, the parser may generate queries instandard SQL by instantiating a search string with the properjoin/select commands based on the tagged text entries, wherein theresulting command is provided over the bridge mechanism to the HD-FAIDas a query. Upon generating query results from the query, the resultsare passed over the bridge mechanism, and may be parsed for formattingand generation of a new results Web page by the bridge mechanism. Such anew results Web page is then provided to the information server, whichmay supply it to the requesting Web browser.

Also, an information server may contain, communicate, generate, obtain,and/or provide program component, system, user, and/or datacommunications, requests, and/or responses.

User Interface

The function of computer interfaces in some respects is similar toautomobile operation interfaces. Automobile operation interface elementssuch as steering wheels, gearshifts, and speedometers facilitate theaccess, operation, and display of automobile resources, functionality,and status. Computer interaction interface elements such as check boxes,cursors, menus, scrollers, and windows (collectively and commonlyreferred to as widgets) similarly facilitate the access, operation, anddisplay of data and computer hardware and operating system resources,functionality, and status. Operation interfaces are commonly called userinterfaces. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such as the Apple MacintoshOperating System's Aqua, IBM's OS/2, Microsoft's Windows2000/2003/3.1/95/98/CE/Millenium/NT/Vista (i.e., Aero)/XP, or Unix'sX-Windows (e.g., which may include additional Unix graphic interfacelibraries and layers such as K Desktop Environment (KDE), mythTV and GNUNetwork Object Model Environment (GNOME)), provide a baseline and meansof accessing and displaying information graphically to users.

A user interface component 1617 is a stored program component that isexecuted by a CPU. The user interface may be a conventional graphic userinterface as provided by, with, and/or atop operating systems and/oroperating environments such as already discussed. The user interface mayallow for the display, execution, interaction, manipulation, and/oroperation of program components and/or system facilities through textualand/or graphical facilities. The user interface provides a facilitythrough which users may affect, interact, and/or operate a computersystem. A user interface may communicate to and/or with other componentsin a component collection, including itself, and/or facilities of thelike. Most frequently, the user interface communicates with operatingsystems, other program components, and/or the like. The user interfacemay contain, communicate, generate, obtain, and/or provide programcomponent, system, user, and/or data communications, requests, and/orresponses.

Web Browser

A Web browser component 1618 is a stored program component that isexecuted by a CPU. The Web browser may be a conventional hypertextviewing application such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or NetscapeNavigator. Secure Web browsing may be supplied with 128 bit (or greater)encryption by way of HTTPS, SSL, and/or the like. Some Web browsersallow for the execution of program components through facilities such asJava, JavaScript, ActiveX, web browser plug-in APIs (e.g., FireFox,Safari Plug-in, and/or the like APIs), and/or the like. Web browsers andlike information access tools may be integrated into PDAs, cellulartelephones, and/or other mobile devices. A Web browser may communicateto and/or with other components in a component collection, includingitself, and/or facilities of the like. Most frequently, the Web browsercommunicates with information servers, operating systems, integratedprogram components (e.g., plug-ins), and/or the like; e.g., it maycontain, communicate, generate, obtain, and/or provide programcomponent, system, user, and/or data communications, requests, and/orresponses. Of course, in place of a Web browser and information server,a combined application may be developed to perform similar functions ofboth. The combined application would similarly affect the obtaining andthe provision of information to users, user agents, and/or the like fromthe HD-FAID enabled nodes. The combined application may be nugatory onsystems employing standard Web browsers.

Mail Server

A mail server component 1621 is a stored program component that isexecuted by a CPU 1603. The mail server may be a conventional Internetmail server such as, but not limited to sendmail, Microsoft Exchange,and/or the like. The mail server may allow for the execution of programcomponents through facilities such as ASP, ActiveX, (ANSI) (Objective-)C (++), C# and/or .NET, CGI scripts, Java, JavaScript, PERL, PHP, pipes,Python, WebObjects, and/or the like. The mail server may supportcommunications protocols such as, but not limited to: Internet messageaccess protocol (IMAP), Messaging Application Programming Interface(MAPI)/Microsoft Exchange, post office protocol (POPS), simple mailtransfer protocol (SMTP), and/or the like. The mail server can route,forward, and process incoming and outgoing mail messages that have beensent, relayed and/or otherwise traversing through and/or to the HD-FAID.

Access to the HD-FAID mail may be achieved through a number of APIsoffered by the individual Web server components and/or the operatingsystem.

Also, a mail server may contain, communicate, generate, obtain, and/orprovide program component, system, user, and/or data communications,requests, information, and/or responses.

Mail Client

A mail client component 1622 is a stored program component that isexecuted by a CPU 1603. The mail client may be a conventional mailviewing application such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, MicrosoftOutlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla, Thunderbird, and/or thelike. Mail clients may support a number of transfer protocols, such as:IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, POP3, SMTP, and/or the like. A mail client maycommunicate to and/or with other components in a component collection,including itself, and/or facilities of the like. Most frequently, themail client communicates with mail servers, operating systems, othermail clients, and/or the like; e.g., it may contain, communicate,generate, obtain, and/or provide program component, system, user, and/ordata communications, requests, information, and/or responses. Generally,the mail client provides a facility to compose and transmit electronicmail messages.

Cryptographic Server

A cryptographic server component 1620 is a stored program component thatis executed by a CPU 1603, cryptographic processor 1626, cryptographicprocessor interface 1627, cryptographic processor device 1628, and/orthe like. Cryptographic processor interfaces will allow for expeditionof encryption and/or decryption requests by the cryptographic component;however, the cryptographic component, alternatively, may run on aconventional CPU. The cryptographic component allows for the encryptionand/or decryption of provided data. The cryptographic component allowsfor both symmetric and asymmetric (e.g., Pretty Good Protection (PGP))encryption and/or decryption. The cryptographic component may employcryptographic techniques such as, but not limited to: digitalcertificates (e.g., X.509 authentication framework), digital signatures,dual signatures, enveloping, password access protection, public keymanagement, and/or the like. The cryptographic component will facilitatenumerous (encryption and/or decryption) security protocols such as, butnot limited to: checksum, Data Encryption Standard (DES), EllipticalCurve Encryption (ECC), International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA),Message Digest 5 (MD5, which is a one way hash function), passwords,Rivest Cipher (RCS), Rijndael, RSA (which is an Internet encryption andauthentication system that uses an algorithm developed in 1977 by RonRivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman), Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA),Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS),and/or the like. Employing such encryption security protocols, theHD-FAID may encrypt all incoming and/or outgoing communications and mayserve as node within a virtual private network (VPN) with a widercommunications network. The cryptographic component facilitates theprocess of “security authorization” whereby access to a resource isinhibited by a security protocol wherein the cryptographic componenteffects authorized access to the secured resource. In addition, thecryptographic component may provide unique identifiers of content, e.g.,employing and MD5 hash to obtain a unique signature for an digital audiofile. A cryptographic component may communicate to and/or with othercomponents in a component collection, including itself, and/orfacilities of the like. The cryptographic component supports encryptionschemes allowing for the secure transmission of information across acommunications network to enable the HD-FAID component to engage insecure transactions if so desired. The cryptographic componentfacilitates the secure accessing of resources on the HD-FAID andfacilitates the access of secured resources on remote systems; i.e., itmay act as a client and/or server of secured resources. Most frequently,the cryptographic component communicates with information servers,operating systems, other program components, and/or the like. Thecryptographic component may contain, communicate, generate, obtain,and/or provide program component, system, user, and/or datacommunications, requests, and/or responses.

The HD-FAID Database

The HD-FAID database component 1619 may be embodied in a database andits stored data. The database is a stored program component, which isexecuted by the CPU; the stored program component portion configuringthe CPU to process the stored data. The database may be a conventional,fault tolerant, relational, scalable, secure database such as Oracle orSybase. Relational databases are an extension of a flat file. Relationaldatabases consist of a series of related tables. The tables areinterconnected via a key field. Use of the key field allows thecombination of the tables by indexing against the key field; i.e., thekey fields act as dimensional pivot points for combining informationfrom various tables. Relationships generally identify links maintainedbetween tables by matching primary keys. Primary keys represent fieldsthat uniquely identify the rows of a table in a relational database.More precisely, they uniquely identify rows of a table on the “one” sideof a one-to-many relationship.

Alternatively, the HD-FAID database may be implemented using variousstandard data-structures, such as an array, hash, (linked) list, struct,structured text file (e.g., XML), table, and/or the like. Suchdata-structures may be stored in memory and/or in (structured) files. Inanother alternative, an object-oriented database may be used, such asFrontier, ObjectStore, Poet, Zope, and/or the like. Object databases caninclude a number of object collections that are grouped and/or linkedtogether by common attributes; they may be related to other objectcollections by some common attributes. Object-oriented databases performsimilarly to relational databases with the exception that objects arenot just pieces of data but may have other types of functionalityencapsulated within a given object. If the HD-FAID database isimplemented as a data-structure, the use of the HD-FAID database 1619may be integrated into another component such as the HD-FAID component1635. Also, the database may be implemented as a mix of data structures,objects, and relational structures. Databases may be consolidated and/ordistributed in countless variations through standard data processingtechniques. Portions of databases, e.g., tables, may be exported and/orimported and thus decentralized and/or integrated.

In one embodiment, the database component 1619 includes several tables1619 a-d. A historical information table 1619 a includes fields such as,but not limited to: an Asset_ID, a Data source ID, historical open andclose prices, volume traded, historical analyses, and/or the like. Auser table 1619 b may include fields such as, but not limited to:User_ID, workspace ID, account type, account preferences, trackedassets, and/or the like. A current information table 1619 c includesfields such as, but not limited to: Asset_ID, current price, currentvolume, current direction, up-to-date analyses, and/or the like.Finally, a complementary currencies table 1619 d includes fields suchas, but not limited to: available currency pairs, Asset_IDs, asset_IDlinks, and/or the like.

In one embodiment, the HD-FAID database may interact with other databasesystems. For example, employing a distributed database system, queriesand data access by search navigator component may treat the combinationof the HD-FAID database, an integrated data security layer database as asingle database entity.

In one embodiment, user programs may contain various user interfaceprimitives, which may serve to update the HD-FAID. Also, variousaccounts may require custom database tables depending upon theenvironments and the types of clients the HD-FAID may need to serve. Itshould be noted that any unique fields may be designated as a key fieldthroughout. In an alternative embodiment, these tables have beendecentralized into their own databases and their respective databasecontrollers (i.e., individual database controllers for each of the abovetables). Employing standard data processing techniques, one may furtherdistribute the databases over several computer systemizations and/orstorage devices. Similarly, configurations of the decentralized databasecontrollers may be varied by consolidating and/or distributing thevarious database components 1619 a-e. The HD-FAID may be configured tokeep track of various settings, inputs, and parameters via databasecontrollers.

The HD-FAID database may communicate to and/or with other components ina component collection, including itself, and/or facilities of the like.Most frequently, the HD-FAID database communicates with the HD-FAIDcomponent, other program components, and/or the like. The database maycontain, retain, and provide information regarding other nodes and data.

The HD-FAIDs

The HD-FAIR component 1635 is a stored program component that isexecuted by a CPU. In one embodiment, the HD-FAID component incorporatesany and/or all combinations of the aspects of the HD-FAID that wasdiscussed in the previous figures. As such, the HD-FAID affectsaccessing, obtaining and the provision of information, services,transactions, and/or the like across various communications networks.

The HD-FAID component enables the retrieval, monitoring, analysis,output of dense data streams and/or the like.

The HD-FAID component enabling access of information between nodes maybe developed by employing standard development tools and languages suchas, but not limited to: Apache components, Assembly, ActiveX, binaryexecutables, (ANSI) (Objective) C (++), C# and/or .NET, databaseadapters, CGI scripts, Java, JavaScript, mapping tools, procedural andobject oriented development tools, PERL, PHP, Python, shell scripts, SQLcommands, web application server extensions, WebObjects, and/or thelike. In one embodiment, the HD-FAID server employs a cryptographicserver to encrypt and decrypt communications. The HD-FAID component maycommunicate to and/or with other components in a component collection,including itself, and/or facilities of the like. Most frequently, theHD-FAID component communicates with the HD-FAID database, operatingsystems, other program components, and/or the like. The HD-FAID maycontain, communicate, generate, obtain, and/or provide programcomponent, system, user, and/or data communications, requests, and/orresponses.

Distributed HD-FAIDs

The structure and/or operation of any of the HD-FAID node controllercomponents may be combined, consolidated, and/or distributed in anynumber of ways to facilitate development and/or deployment. Similarly,the component collection may be combined in any number of ways tofacilitate deployment and/or development. To accomplish this, one mayintegrate the components into a common code base or in a facility thatcan dynamically load the components on demand in an integrated fashion.

The component collection may be consolidated and/or distributed incountless variations through standard data processing and/or developmenttechniques. Multiple instances of any one of the program components inthe program component collection may be instantiated on a single node,and/or across numerous nodes to improve performance throughload-balancing and/or data-processing techniques. Furthermore, singleinstances may also be distributed across multiple controllers and/orstorage devices; e.g., databases. All program component instances andcontrollers working in concert may do so through standard dataprocessing communication techniques.

The configuration of the HD-FAID controller will depend on the contextof system deployment. Factors such as, but not limited to, the budget,capacity, location, and/or use of the underlying hardware resources mayaffect deployment requirements and configuration. Regardless of if theconfiguration results in more consolidated and/or integrated programcomponents, results in a more distributed series of program components,and/or results in some combination between a consolidated anddistributed configuration, data may be communicated, obtained, and/orprovided. Instances of components consolidated into a common code basefrom the program component collection may communicate, obtain, and/orprovide data. This may be accomplished through intra-application dataprocessing communication techniques such as, but not limited to: datareferencing (e.g., pointers), internal messaging, object instancevariable communication, shared memory space, variable passing, and/orthe like.

If component collection components are discrete, separate, and/orexternal to one another, then communicating, obtaining, and/or providingdata with and/or to other component components may be accomplishedthrough inter-application data processing communication techniques suchas, but not limited to: Application Program Interfaces (API) informationpassage; (distributed) Component Object Model ((D)COM), (Distributed)Object Linking and Embedding ((D)OLE), and/or the like), Common ObjectRequest Broker Architecture (CORBA), local and remote applicationprogram interfaces Jini, Remote Method Invocation (RMI), process pipes,shared files, and/or the like. Messages sent between discrete componentcomponents for inter-application communication or within memory spacesof a singular component for intra-application communication may befacilitated through the creation and parsing of a grammar. A grammar maybe developed by using standard development tools such as lex, yacc, XML,and/or the like, which allow for grammar generation and parsingfunctionality, which in turn may form the basis of communicationmessages within and between components. Again, the configuration willdepend upon the context of system deployment.

The entirety of this disclosure (including the Cover Page, Title,Headings, Field, Background, Summary, Brief Description of the Drawings,Detailed Description, Claims, Abstract, Figures, and otherwise) shows byway of illustration various embodiments in which the claimed inventionsmay be practiced. The advantages and features of the disclosure are of arepresentative sample of embodiments only, and are not exhaustive and/orexclusive. They are presented only to assist in understanding and teachthe claimed principles. It should be understood that they are notrepresentative of all claimed inventions. As such, certain aspects ofthe disclosure have not been discussed herein. That alternateembodiments may not have been presented for a specific portion of theinvention or that further undescribed alternate embodiments may beavailable for a portion is not to be considered a disclaimer of thosealternate embodiments. It will be appreciated that many of thoseundescribed embodiments incorporate the same principles of the inventionand others are equivalent. Thus, it is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and functional, logical, organizational,structural and/or topological modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope and/or spirit of the disclosure. As such, allexamples and/or embodiments are deemed to be non-limiting throughoutthis disclosure. Also, no inference should be drawn regarding thoseembodiments discussed herein relative to those not discussed hereinother than it is as such for purposes of reducing space and repetition.For instance, it is to be understood that the logical and/or topologicalstructure of any combination of any program components (a componentcollection), other components and/or any present feature sets asdescribed in the figures and/or throughout are not limited to a fixedoperating order and/or arrangement, but rather, any disclosed order isexemplary and all equivalents, regardless of order, are contemplated bythe disclosure. Furthermore, it is to be understood that such featuresare not limited to serial execution, but rather, any number of threads,processes, services, servers, and/or the like that may executeasynchronously, concurrently, in parallel, simultaneously,synchronously, and/or the like are contemplated by the disclosure. Assuch, some of these features may be mutually contradictory, in that theycannot be simultaneously present in a single embodiment. Similarly, somefeatures are applicable to one aspect of the invention, and inapplicableto others. In addition, the disclosure includes other inventions notpresently claimed. Applicant reserves all rights in those presentlyunclaimed inventions including the right to claim such inventions, fileadditional applications, continuations, continuations in part,divisions, and/or the like thereof. As such, it should be understoodthat advantages, embodiments, examples, functional, features, logical,organizational, structural, topological, and/or other aspects of thedisclosure are not to be considered limitations on the disclosure asdefined by the claims or limitations on equivalents to the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer readable medium encodedwith instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causethe at least one processor to provide: a first asset selection interfaceelement configured to provide selection of an initial financial assetclass; a second asset selection interface element configured to providea set of financial asset selections complementary to the first assetselection interface element, whereby the set of financial assetselections are determined by checking a list of asset pairs available toa user; a display area configured to show, for an asset pair, asset pairinformation based on one or more user inputs made to the first andsecond asset selection interface elements, wherein the asset pairinformation comprises: an opening price of the asset pair for a day; acurrent price of the asset pair; a high price of the asset pair for theday; a low price of the asset pair for the day; a price range of theasset pair for the day, wherein the price range of the asset pair forthe day is a range between the low price of the asset pair for the dayand the high price of the asset pair for the day; a high price of theasset pair for a past ten minutes; a low price of the asset pair for thepast ten minutes; and a price range of the asset pair for the past tenminutes, wherein the price range of the asset pair for the past tenminutes is a range between the low price of the asset pair for the pastten minutes and the high price of the asset pair for the past tenminutes; an asset pair current buy and sell price indicator elementresponsive to the asset pair information; an asset pair sparklinevelocity indicator element responsive to the asset pair information, theasset pair sparkline velocity indicator element configured to pulse toindicate a sudden spike in the current price of the asset pair; whereinthe asset pair sparkline velocity indicator element has an intensitytrail, wherein the intensity trail includes a place for the asset pairsparkline velocity indicator element in a position corresponding to thecurrent price of the asset pair, a region allowing the asset pairsparkline velocity indicator element to move within the price range ofthe asset pair for the day, a region indicating the price range of theasset pair for the past ten minutes lower than the current price withone color, and another region indicating the price range of the assetpair for the past ten minutes higher than the current price with adifferent color, and wherein the asset pair sparkline velocity indicatorelement has a directionality, wherein the directionality is determinedby using a median price of the asset pair for the day and an exponentialmoving average of the current price of the asset pair over the past tenminutes; an asset pair trade selection interface element configured toreceive a user input to effect a trade on the asset pair; a timehistogram indicator element configured to indicate an amount of time theasset pair is traded at each price; and a daily price change indicatorelement configured to provide a percentage change of the price of theasset pair on the day, wherein the percentage change of the price of theasset pair on the day is determined by subtracting the opening pricefrom the current price of the asset pair and then dividing by theopening price of the asset pair, the daily price change indicatorelement displayed as a title bar that is colored according to thepercentage change of the price of the asset pair on the day.
 2. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the firstand second asset selection interface elements are further configured tobe engaged more than once to provide selection for multiple selectedasset pairs among the asset pairs available to the user.
 3. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: a group creation interface element configured to create groupsthat are comprised of subsets of the selected asset pairs.
 4. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: a display view selection interface element configured to selecta first subset of the selected asset pairs to be presented on thedisplay area using a grid format and a second subset of the selectedasset pairs to be presented on the display area using a list format. 5.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: a key level selector indicator element configured to providekey price levels for the asset pair including high and low price levelsfor different time periods, various day-moving-averages, and asset pairprice forecasts.
 6. A non-transitory computer readable medium encodedwith instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causethe at least one processor to provide: a first asset selection interfaceelement configured to provide selection of an initial financial assetclass; a second asset selection interface element configured to providea set of financial asset selections complementary to the first assetselection interface element, whereby the set of financial assetselections are determined by checking a list of asset pairs available toa user; a display area configured to show, for an asset pair, asset pairinformation based on one or more user inputs made to the first andsecond asset selection interface elements, wherein the asset pairinformation comprises: an opening price of the asset pair for adeployment relevant time span; a current price of the asset pair; a highprice of the asset pair for the deployment relevant time span; a lowprice of the asset pair for the deployment relevant time span; a pricerange of the asset pair for the deployment relevant time span, whereinthe price range of the asset pair for the deployment relevant time spanis a range between the low price of the asset pair for the deploymentrelevant time span and the high price of the asset pair for thedeployment relevant time span; a high price of the asset pair for asecondary relevant time span; a low price of the asset pair for thesecondary relevant time span; and a price range of the asset pair forthe secondary relevant time span, wherein the price range of the assetpair for the secondary relevant time span is a range between the lowprice of the asset pair for the secondary relevant time span and thehigh price of the asset pair for the secondary relevant time span; anasset pair current buy and sell price indicator element responsive tothe asset pair information; and an asset pair sparkline velocityindicator element responsive to the asset pair information, wherein theasset pair sparkline velocity indicator element has an intensity trail,wherein the intensity trail includes a place for the asset pairsparkline velocity indicator element in a position corresponding to thecurrent price of the asset pair, a region allowing the asset pairsparkline velocity indicator element to move within the price range ofthe asset pair for a last deployment relevant time span, a regionindicating the price range of the asset pair for a last secondaryrelevant time span lower than the current price with one color, andanother region indicating the price range of the asset pair for the lastsecondary relevant time span higher than the current price with adifferent color, and wherein the asset pair sparkline velocity indicatorelement has a directionality, wherein the directionality is determinedby using a median price of the asset pair over the last deploymentrelevant time span and an exponential moving average of the currentprice of the asset pair over the last secondary relevant time span. 7.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: an asset pair trade selection interface element configured toreceive a user input to effect a trade on the asset pair.
 8. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the assetpair sparkline velocity indicator element is further configured to startpulsing to indicate a spike in the current price of the asset pair. 9.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: a time histogram indicator element configured to indicate anamount of time the asset pair is traded at each price.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor toprovide: a price change indicator element for the deployment relevanttime span, the price change indicator element configured to provide apercentage change of the current price of the asset pair on thedeployment relevant time span, wherein the percentage change of thecurrent price of the asset pair on the deployment relevant time span isdetermined by subtracting the opening price from the current price ofthe asset pair and then dividing by the opening price of the asset pair.11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein theprice change indicator element for the deployment relevant time span isdisplayed as a title bar that is colored according to the percentagechange of the current price of the asset pair on the deployment relevanttime span.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6,wherein the deployment relevant time span is one day.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein thesecondary relevant time span is ten minutes.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the first and second assetselection interface elements are further configured to be engaged morethan once to provide selection for multiple selected asset pairs amongthe asset pairs available to the user.
 15. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to provide: a group creationinterface element configured to create groups that are comprised ofsubsets of the selected asset pairs.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to provide: a display viewselection interface element configured to select a first subset of theselected asset pairs to be presented on the display area using a gridformat and a second subset of the selected asset pairs to be presentedon the display area using a list format.
 17. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to provide: a key levelselector indicator element configured to provide key price levels forthe asset pair including high and low price levels for different timeperiods, various day-moving-averages, and asset pair price forecasts.18. An apparatus comprising: a memory configured to store instructions;and at least one processor configured when executing the instructionsto: provide a first asset selection interface element configured toprovide selection of an initial financial asset class; provide a secondasset selection interface element configured to provide a set offinancial asset selections complementary to the first asset selectioninterface element, whereby the set of financial asset selections aredetermined by checking a list of asset pairs available to a user;provide a display area configured to show, for an asset pair, asset pairinformation based on one or more user inputs made to the first andsecond asset selection interface elements, wherein the asset pairinformation comprises: an opening price of the asset pair for a day; acurrent price of the asset pair; a high price of the asset pair for theday; a low price of the asset pair for the day; a price range of theasset pair for the day, wherein the price range of the asset pair forthe day is a range between the low price of the asset pair for the dayand the high price of the asset pair for the day; a high price of theasset pair for a past ten minutes; a low price of the asset pair for thepast ten minutes; and a price range of the asset pair for the past tenminutes, wherein the price range of the asset pair for the past tenminutes is a range between the low price of the asset pair for the pastten minutes and the high price of the asset pair for the past tenminutes; provide an asset pair current buy and sell price indicatorelement responsive to the asset pair information; provide an asset pairsparkline velocity indicator element responsive to the asset pairinformation, the asset pair sparkline velocity indicator elementconfigured to pulse to indicate a sudden spike in the current price ofthe asset pair; wherein the asset pair sparkline velocity indicatorelement has an intensity trail, wherein the intensity trail includes aplace for the asset pair sparkline velocity indicator element in aposition corresponding to the current price of the asset pair, a regionallowing the asset pair sparkline velocity indicator element to movewithin the price range of the asset pair for the day, a regionindicating the price range of the asset pair for the past ten minuteslower than the current price with one color, and another regionindicating the price range of the asset pair for the past ten minuteshigher than the current price with a different color, and wherein theasset pair sparkline velocity indicator element has a directionality,wherein the directionality is determined by using a median price of theasset pair for the day and an exponential moving average of the currentprice of the asset pair over the past ten minutes; provide an asset pairtrade selection interface element provided to receive a user input toeffect a trade on the asset pair; provide a time histogram indicatorelement configured to indicate an amount of time the asset pair istraded at each price; and provide a daily price change indicator elementconfigured to provide a percentage change of the price of the asset pairon the day, wherein the percentage change of the price of the asset pairon the day is determined by subtracting the opening price from thecurrent price of the asset pair and then dividing by the opening priceof the asset pair, the daily price change indicator element displayed asa title bar that is colored according to the percentage change of theprice of the asset pair on the day.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18,wherein the first and second asset selection interface elements arefurther configured to be engaged more than once to provide selection formultiple selected asset pairs among the asset pairs available to theuser.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one processoris further configured when executing the instructions to provide a groupcreation interface element configured to create groups that arecomprised of subsets of the selected asset pairs.